Nearly two months ago to the day (July 9), I posted about Toyota’s incredible run on “safety” as a campaign message.
That post, “Toyota: Lost in the Wilderness?,” is right here.
Its thrust: given all the recalls and problems, are they already done with this “safety” push? It seems so, given some new social media-oriented, reliability-themed spots I’ve seen. Just as I was noticing how blatant the safety sell was, both in print and on-air, some fun, story-based spots started showing up in the ad mix. I found it problematic – a premature watering-down of the critical “safety” theme.
This is a company whose entire brand was built on reliability. Since November, though, it’s recalled more than 10,000,000 cars in the United States. The brand name repeatedly made headlines about sticky gas pedals and sudden acceleration. They made a brief, hard run at “safety,” but seemed to be flitting off in other directions after just a couple months.
Toyota Commits to the Safety Message
This morning, I was flipping through a recent issue of Advertising Age and read this headline: “Toyota to Push Safety in Ad Blitz.” I thought I was reading a back issue, but no … it’s dated September 6, 2010. The story’s a bit longer online than in print and can be read here.
Basically, Saatchi Los Angeles is building more creative elements to support the safety message – with an emphasis on the STAR Safety System. The campaign will run “well into 2011.” The renewed push is likely spurred by horrific August sales figures.
The latest incarnation of Apple TV has again fired up the “cut the cord” talk – killing off your obscenely-priced cable or satellite subscription. The stranglehold is broken. Cutting the cord is absolutely a trend.
Apple TV, for example, has now joined more than 100 other devices that support Netflix streaming, which allows unending access to a huge library of programming direct to your television.
What you want, when you want it, as often as you want it – it’s easier than ever and doesn’t require a $100 cable bill. Just a little bit of new hardware, a high-speed internet connection, maybe some new software, some non-cable and non-satellite programming subscriptions …
Just don’t tell me it’s about saving money.
Go old school: harness high definition television in its cleanest form with a $10 antenna or even a paperclip - compliments of your local broadcaster.
High definition television in its cleanest, purest form is always available to you at no cost. The signal gets no better than straight out of the air. No expensive hardware to purchase (because you already own that 42″ HDTV). No cable, no satellite, no high speed internet, no Hulu, no Netflix … no subscription required of any kind.
Digital broadcast signals are in the air and all you need to harness them is a $10 antenna (though a large paperclip will often suffice). Again, high definition television in its cleanest, purest form can be brought into your home at no cost.
Yes, you’re limited in programming. In most areas, though, you’ll get a dozen channels or more between primary and sub-channels, from such content providers as PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, Univision, Telemundo and others.
Yes, you’re giving up some precious control, subjecting yourself to a linear broadcast with incessant commercial interruptions.
Yes, it’s ludicrous to imagine cutting a high-speed internet subscription.
Yes, you may want to augment your options with a sub-$10 Netflix subscription.
But … over-the-air television is absolutely free. Right now. All the time. And it’s nearly 100% stupid-proof … just plug it in and turn it on. It’s the true essence of passive entertainment.
I know this sounds like the ramblings of your grandfather, but the point remains: if your argument and motivation for “cutting the cord” is financial, you must celebrate the role your local broadcaster plays in entertaining and informing you.
High definition television in a linear form is a relic. And it’s absolutely free.
Here are the before and after images (actually arranged as after and before):
Before and After Photoshop: BP Command Center
I’ve seen two primary, polar reactions to this story:
“It’s no surprise coming from those no-good, lying, reckless, corner-cutting, profit-hoarding goons!”
“What’s the big deal? They’ve obviously got bigger fish to fry!” (or fish to slick and suffocate, as it were)
I’ll take a minute to stand more toward the middle, but clearly on one side.
Altering an image is directly opposed to fundamental principles of management and public relations. For the past 5 years, you couldn’t spend 5 minutes with any Harvard Business Review publication without feeling the movement toward transparency and authenticity.
Social media, in particular, has really brought these concepts in practice to the fore. Fold in some Seth Godin-style storytelling-as-marketing and the picture is even more clear: every individual and organization has the opportunity to tell the world who they are, what they’re about, where they’re from, why they’re here. Beyond that, they can always share what they know, when they know it, directly with people who care.
If, however, these efforts are not received as honest and forthright from a good corporate citizen, this may be done for you (witness: BPGlobalPR on Twitter). Regardless, companies of all sizes have embraced this opportunity and grown as a result.
As small an infraction as filling in a few Command Center monitors with some action shots may seem, it’s not honest. When your every move is under the most extreme scrutiny you’ll ever enjoy, why doctor the images that are helping tell your story of response and recovery? Apparently, trucking in workers for a Presidential photo op isn’t enough.
The BP spokesperson’s response to this story wasn’t awful: “Normally, we only use Photoshop for the typical purposes of color correction and cropping.” Transparency, authenticity and honesty should be employed constantly, not “normally.” Yes, it’s asking a lot, but truth is ultimately easier and best.
Original estimates on the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf (5,000 revised to 50-100,000) now seem as ridiculous as the original cost estimates of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ($50-60,000,000,000 revised to $2-3,000,000,000,000).
BP continues to buy pay-per-click campaigns (Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube) to try to steer searches to BP-produced information (to be fair, it’s a fine idea – I mention it because they took some heat for it).
BP withheld video of the leak for weeks, only released it through government mandate and continued to withhold HD video from scientists working on the problem.
Though off-point with regard to honesty, Hayward’s “I want my life back” and weekend of yachting earned charges of being aloof, insensitive and out of touch (um, 11 people lost their lives permanently in the initial explosion). He even described the spill as “relatively tiny.”
The list goes on and the point remains: the PR response to the worst oil spill in U.S. history has been neither excellent nor honest. The scope of this disaster is unprecedented. It could have happened to any oil company working off shore. Some PR blunders and gaffes can be reasonably expected. Active obfuscation, however, is beyond “blunder.”
Bottom line: I find the Photoshopped image to be a micro-representation of an attitude, philosophy and practice completely opposed to the best path forward: transparency and authenticity.
What a great ad. What a great message. What a great brand.
I loved where Toyota was with this:
The automotive branding textbook example is “Volvo = Safety.”
A runner up: “Toyota = Reliability.”
Once the darling of the automotive world for its efficient production, fantastic sales and extreme reliability, however, Toyota‘s taken quite a hit over the past year.
Result: a hard tack away from reliability toward …
Wow! That’s a ton of “safety.” A quick count has them at seven mentions per :30 spot – nearly one time every four seconds!
On the upside: message is loud and clear, yet casual and clean. Also, safety is not wholly separate from reliability; I consider the two concepts quite compatible. It’s also timely and topical, if not a little bold given the state of all things Toyota.
On the downside: if you’re a Toyota owner (which I’ve never been), you may not buy the message – especially if the recalls have been particularly inconvenient. This “safety” onslaught (I’ve seen several full-page print ads to match these spots) is not even fresh on the heels of the safety and reliability problems – it’s amid them. I feel strongly, though, that something often enough repeated comes to be believed (for better and for worse).
I feel like this direction could really work … but they’re already giving up on it.
“They’re Already Giving Up” Exhibit A:
In short: “smart, young go-getter gets a helping hand from a good corporate citizen.” Two notes: “Erica” does say the word “reliable” and it’s the same voice as the safety campaign.
The “safety” sell, though, seems to have expired. They must have research that suggests their problems with perceived safety and reliability are over – or that those perception/imaging problems were never too deep.
If not, I’m considering Toyota lost in the wilderness.
Disclaimer: Toyota is obviously a highly sophisticated marketer. My observations are based strictly in mainstream television and magazine messages. I expect fully that they’ve got many targeted, niche campaigns striking exactly where needed that are beyond my view.
(((Disclaimer: this is not a technology review or product comparison. This post is about product positioning in prospects’ minds.)))
They’re the best commercials on TV right now … but they’re probably too late. The first of these hit the air in March. The iPad dropped on April 3.
Amazon hit up Ithyle for these fun, imaginative and insanely stylish ads for their Kindle reader. Between the visual technique, music, props, scenes and transitions, they sing “the simple pleasure of stories” to me. The feature or benefit sell is strictly limited to “books in 60 seconds,” which is subtle and sound.
Too bad this effort wasn’t undertaken a year or two back.
Check out the first three:
The Kindle has a very specific purpose. It’s uniquely focused – no apps, no color, no video, no internet, just reading. 3G wireless provides access to a huge library of books, each of which can be downloaded in a minute or less. That 3G access requires no subscriptions or monthly fees. The battery life is very, very impressive. Quite simply, it’s the best e-reader currently available.
Despite all this, I feel strongly that the iPad takes Kindle’s place in the mind of prospective buyers of e-readers.
That said, this isn’t a zero-sum game. For the sliver who only want to read books and who do a rational side-by-side comparison, the Kindle should come out ahead.
For a couple years now, Amazon has done a nice job profiling Kindle on its homepage, particularly around holidays and other gift-buying times. They have end-cap displays at Target complete with a live device that you can pick up, hold and explore. They continue to roll out beautiful ads on television.
I’m “friends” with Colorado Governor Bill Ritter on Facebook. I’m not sure how or when this happened, but, as a positive consequence, I get some useful info about goings-on at the state level. Because of this “relationship,” I was treated to this in my Facebook News Feed yesterday morning:
Zeitgeist Movement Colorado tags Governor Bill Ritter
Like many of his 4,868 other “friends,” I watched the video out of curiosity alone. “We are all connected” … sounds interesting!
Obviously, the tagging of the Governor by a member of the movement was a tactic to get attention – a “spray and pray” effort to cast a message as widely as possible by whatever means available with the hope that a target will be struck. The downside: this runs against new, targeted, permission-based marketing principles. The lamentable upside: it actually works … I’m writing about it right now (!?).
So what is this Zeitgeist Movement that made its way into my consciousness by way of a dubious marketing ploy? They seem to have semi-laudablebut wildlyimpractical goals/ideals. They call for a “sustainable social design” built on a “resource-based economy.” Those are nice-sounding phrases. It’s all based on the life’s work of industrial designer and social engineer Jaques Fresco.
I say it’s “laudable” because their critique of the status quo is harsh, highlighting the ugliest things about the way we live, work and “prosper.” Also laudable are emphases on: world as singular organism, humans as singlular family, dependence upon healthy environment, natural processes, and the scientific method. Per their intro video, they endorse the “humane application of science and technology to social design and decision making.”
I judge it “impractical” because it seeks a complete and fundamental redesign of all the world’s social and economic structures; its coming to pass seems wholly impossible given human nature.
In hindsight, I’m glad my Facebook News Feed was “hijacked” by a fallacious video tag.
They’re “out there.” They’re disconnected in nearly every way from mainstream thought. They’re imagining an experience, even existence, here on earth completely unlike what it is today. I expect that this separation from mainstream is a primary reason they resort to such tactics.
A positive outcome: they reminded me of something valuable. We owe it to ourselves to consider every now and again how our fellow human beings are thinking and dreaming differently.
I never endorse such tactics, but I always endorse thinking, dreaming and listening.
